Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun is being detained by Chinese authorities, according to Australia's Embassy in Beijing. Yang was reportedly taken into custody immediately after flying from New York to China on Saturday. Since then, the democracy advocate's normally active Twitter feed has fallen silent.

The teachers union in Denver has voted to approve a strike that could begin as soon as Jan. 28. It would be the first time the city has seen a teacher strike in almost 25 years.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association finished voting late Tuesday after more than a year of negotiations between the union and the district, which have failed to yield an agreement.

Luigi Disisto is a 47-year-old autistic man who lives at a private special education center based in suburban Boston best known for being the only school in the country that shocks its disabled students to control their behavior.

Disisto wears a backpack equipped with a battery and wires that are attached to his body to deliver a two-second shock if he misbehaves.

The controversial practice at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has pitted family members who swear it has been the only way to control their loved ones against critics who call it torture.

Mexico's homicide rate continued to skyrocket last year, making 2018 the deadliest on record for the country with an average of 91 deaths a day.

Zimbabwe forces have engaged in "systematic torture" of protesters, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has found. The torture, mostly consisting of "indiscriminate and severe beatings," follows several days of looting, fires and street barricades by protesters angry over high fuel prices.

Russell Baker, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer who penned thousands of columns for The New York Times, and hosted the PBS television program "Masterpiece Theatre," died Monday at his home in Leesburg, Va. He was 93.